


Friendship is Hard Work

by GimmeDatElephant



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Awkward twin sisters, But then thats it, Cross-Posted on Wattpad, Dragons, Friendship, Gay Character, Gay Male Character, I will edit this later, I'm just trying to get it out of my head, Male Friendship, Mentions of homophobia, Past!Bullying, Possible Character Death, Weasley Jumpers, havent decided yet - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-23
Updated: 2017-01-04
Packaged: 2018-08-24 03:14:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 13,340
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8354725
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GimmeDatElephant/pseuds/GimmeDatElephant
Summary: Charlie Weasley, fresh out of Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry and new to the Romanian Dragon Preserve.
His guide, instructor and cabin-mate, Ethan RedHeart, was continually bullied at Hogwarts during his school years, and thus transferred to Beauxbatons, that he's come to dislike anyone from Hogwarts; they're all arrogant, disrespectful assholes, in his purely professional opinion. Former Hogwarts students disrespect him, the other dragon tamers, and the dragons one way or another, without fail; he's just waiting for the shoe to drop with Charlie.
Charlie on the other hand is in awe of his dragon taming superior and is just trying to have a decent conversation with him. He wants to know everything about him, starting from his time at Hogwarts, his reason for transfer, how he fell in love with dragons in the first place, and most importantly, why Ethan hates him so much.
Forget about friendship! Can they eventually get along?





	1. New Adventures in Romania

Charlie Weasley.

Fresh out of Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry. Was the Seeker for the Gryffindor Quidditch team. Excelled in Care of Magical Creatures. And now, on his way to Romania to work at the Romanian Dragon Sanctuary to become a dragon tamer!

His mother was nervous about her second oldest child moving so far from home, and being in such close proximity to dangerous, fire-breathing dragons. As most mothers would be.

"Don't worry, mum. I'll floo and write as often as I can."

Molly, his mother, was sobbing into Arthur, his father's, shoulder. "I just hope you'll be safe, Charlie." Arthur said quietly.

"Well how safe can he be?" One twin, George possibly, asked loudly.

"Yeah!" The other twin, Fred maybe, agreed. "He's going to be around fire-breathing dragons that could roast and eat him in one bite!"

"Fred! George!" Molly yelled. She smacked each of them on their chests repeatedly, while they just giggled, halfheartedly trying to block her hits. "How could you even say something like that!"

"Well, mum. It's true. If I do something stupid, wrong or dangerous around them, they could very well eat me."

"Charlie!" Moly yelled again, directing her righteous anger at him.

"What? It's true!" Charlie shrugged, as if it didn't really matter.

"It might be true, but that doesn't mean you should say it out loud! Especially since you know how I feel about your decision to work with vicious brutes!"

"I promise I won't get eaten mum. Now I have to be off, I have to floo to the Ministry to get a portkey to Romania. I've already filled out the needed paperwork, and my requisition was approved. You know how portkeys work, you have to be punctual or else they don't work anymore."

Molly hugged her second oldest son one more time before ushering him toward the floo.

Ginny, his little sister, ran up to her older brother and gave him a long hard squeeze, mumbled a quick "Be safe," and let him go.

"Bye, everyone!" Charlie said before grabbing a pinch of floo powder, saying Ministry of Magic clearly and dropping his floo powder only to be swept away in green flames.  
__________

At the Ministry

Charlie was directed towards the appropriate area, he got his portkey, and off he went.  
___________

Romanian Dragon Sanctuary

Charlie arrived at the Romanian Dragon Sanctuary a couple of hours before he needed to arrive. He smiled wide, excited to be there and work with the beasts he loved. Charlie looked around, taking in the sights and sounds, green trees surrounded the area, a dirt paths lined with rocks lead residents to their destinations, and dragons could be heard, roaring, grumbling, and breathing fire in the distance. Charlie couldn't be more in awe.

"Hello there, mate. You are...?" A man, Scottish by his accent, asked. He had no hair, a beefy stature, tattoos all over his arms, and a vest made out of a strange material that Charlie had never seen. 

"I'm Charlie Weasley." He stuck out his hand. The other man shook it with force. "I want to be one of the dragon tamers, if it's alright with you?"

"Oh, lad. That's not up to me, that's up to you. I'm Bearnard. Most everyone here calls me Baldie. I'm sure you've noticed why."

Charlie laughed uncomfortably, this man intimidated him.

"Come," Baldie continued. "Let's get you settled in your cabin. I hope you don't mind having a cabin mate?"

"Oh no! I don't mind, I have 5 brothers and a little sister, cabin mates don't phase me."

"Six siblings, wow. All I've got are me two sisters, both of them are prissy little Quidditch players."

"Oh yeah? Which team?" Charlie asked, genuinely interested. He loved Quidditch.

"Two different teams, actually. The Hollyhead Harpies and the Banchory Bangers. The Bangers aren't very good, but they love having parties after every game, and Greer loves to eat, drink and be merry. Bridget didn't want to play with any boys on her team, so she joined the Harpies. She's a pretty good player, what with being a beater. But enough about us, tell us about you!"

"There's not much to tell, actually. We're a close family, my mother cooks exceptionally well, my father works for the ministry, I'm the second oldest, Bill is the oldest. Then there's Percy, I think he's going to work in the ministry as well. And then there's Fred and George, they're little prankster shits, and twins to boot. I hope they grow up someday, or at least find a way to monetize their pranks and get their jokes into Zonko's. Then there's Ron, he's starting Hogwarts soon. And then there's little Ginny. She's a fierce little bugger, but I guess she has to be with 6 older brothers."

They approached the housing complex.

"Anyway, where will I be staying?"

"Ah, yes. You'll be staying with Ethan in cabin 11. Normally your cabin mate is there to greet you when you arrive, but you were early, and he's probably sleeping. You get 24 hours to yourself every week, and most of the time what we all like to do is sleep or eat. You decide how you spend your 24 hours, but I can almost guarantee that all you'll want to do in 6 days is sleep." Baldie knocked on the door loudly. A loud grunt was received in return, so Baldie pushed the door open. "Ethan, my love! I'm here to try and win your heart!!"

A loud groan echoed throughout the room. It cabin was modestly small, with solid wood walls and floor, barely able to contain two beds, a large window inbetween them, two dressers, a bathroom, another door next to the bathroom, and a small living space with another window at the center of it.

"I don't want this love." A pile of pillows and blankets said from the other side of the room. Hair stuck out from under a blanket, and soon enough a head popped out and brown eyes blinked blearily in Baldie's general direction. From what Charlie could see, this man was absolutely beautiful; pale skin as white as the moon, gorgeously messy mop of blue hair, and slightly sleep deprived honey brown eyes, Charlie noticed as the man woke up more. "I just want sleep, and if you truly loved me, Bearnard, you wouldn't pull this absolute bullshit on me."

Baldie laughed. "Of course, of course. But your cabin mate arrived, and I wanted to get him settled."

The blue haired man looked confused. Then he grabbed his watch on the bedside table and looked at the time. "Must be early then, I still have two hours before I have to even start getting ready to greet them."

"Actually, I was so excited to be here that I arrived early." Charlie spoke up.

The blue haired man grunted again. "I should get up then, show you around better and not make up stories about anything and tell you lies." He glared at Baldie. Baldie chuckled in response. "Anyway. I'm Ethan." The blue haired man - Ethan - stood from the bed (he wasn't wearing anything, Charlie looked away), and stretched as far as his body allowed. Pops and cracks met Charlie's ears, obviously coming from Ethan. "You can leave your things there, you'll sort them out later. Or you can start unpacking as I get dressed. I don't care which." He left for the bathroom.

"Alright." Charlie agreed. He walked to what he supposed was his side of the room, as it was entirely unlived in, and started putting his things away, barely needing more than one drawer for his clothes.

Ethan came out of the bathroom with a toothbrush hanging from his mouth. "That's all you've got?" He asked bluntly.

"Yeah, I don't have much. I figured I'd get more things while I'm here, figure out what I need and get it."

Ethan grunted again. The took the toothbrush out of his mouth and spoke, "My only recommendation is that you never purchase dragon hide anything. Yeah, it's dragon fire proof, and it's the best material for working with dragons, but they know what it is, and are more likely to kill you." Movement by the door caught his eye. "Oi! The fuck are you still doing here, Bearnard?"

"Can't I enjoy the view?"

"You've got a wife, go enjoy her view before I spit on you!"

Baldie guffawed and took the hint to leave.

Ethan turned around and spit in the sink before continuing brushing his teeth, Charlie assumed.

Soon enough a still naked Ethan came out of the bathroom and got some clothes from one of his drawers and got dressed right there. Charlie made a point to not look.

"You can look, you know. I don't mind. Plus, you should probably get used to it, I'm not changing my ways because I have a new roomie."

Charlie still didn't look. "It's alright. One day I'll get used to it, but today is not the day."

"Suit yourself, then. Are you ready to look around, get some food, maybe?"

"Only if you are." Charlie carefully looked at him and found that he was completely dressed. He wore a plain long-sleeved pink plaid shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows and a white shirt poking out from underneath, and muggle blue jeans tucked into leather boots.

"Alright then, let's get some food, I'm starving." Ethan walked to the door nearest the bathroom, turned the handle and left without another word. Charlie followed him shortly thereafter, and was amazed by the sight that greeted him in the other side of the door.


	2. Introduction to New Friends

Charlie took in the sights as he walked next to Ethan. Fewer trees were in this area, some of them burned, probably from dragon fire. More dirt paths wound their way to more buildings, and Charlie noticed they were heading for the largest one.

"So we're heading to mess hall, that's where you get your meals." Ethan said, shoving his hands into the pockets of his jeans. "It's open at all hours as we have night workers that take care of the more... special, shall we say, dragons. You'll notice that some of the dragons have scars all over them, mainly around their necks. Those are the special cases, they've been illegally sold as babies to "pure blood" arsewipes who think that dragons are only there as status symbols. Most of the time, they're afraid and lash out in fear of being hurt in some way. When you break past that barrier, they're still dangerous, mind, but they'll recognize you as a source of food, and mostly trust you. They'll never quite get over what happened to them, but they won't try and kill you... as much. Any questions, so far?"

"You feed the dragons by hand?" Charlie asked, entirely shocked.

"Not all the time, no. Once you gain their trust, we bring in a trough for you to slowly put the food in."

"Oh, thank goodness. I'm sure dragons eat a lot."

"You'd think so." Ethan said, crinkling his face in thought. "Some eat a lot and are fat as fuck, and some don't eat much at all. Course, the smaller full grown dragons don't eat much while the larger full grown dragons eat a lot, but that's to be expected."

"Do you have any baby dragons?"

"Sometimes. When we intercept an illegal dragon trade. Should two dragons breed, we let the parents take care of them, unless they're abusing their hatchlings, at which point we take them away. We have a set of male dragons and a separate set of female dragons that take a baby from a few nests and raise them, so don't be alarmed if you see that. But... Do be alarmed if they start breaking eggs or killing hatchlings."

"What do I do if I see that?"

"Shoot green, purple, or orange sparks at them; generally it scares them away. Never red or blue sparks. For some reason those colours just make them attack you."

They arrived at the door to the mess hall. Ethan pushed the door open and strolled inside, a couple of girls, who were enjoying their good smelling lunch, greeting him by the door. Ethan smiled politely at them before making his way further inside.

Ethan grabbed a steel tray and grabbed a rather large salad consisting of what looked like 7 different types of lettuce, carrots, tomatoes, and onions, a small bowl of beef stew, some kind of sandwich, a yellow apple and two glasses of water. When Ethan turned around, and noticed that Charlie didn't get anything, he gestured to the food, silently asking if he wanted anything to eat. Charlie shook his head. Ethan shrugged, grabbed a second yellow apple and looked around the room. Once he spotted someone he knew, he made his way over, making sure Charlie was following him.

Ethan set his tray down on the table and sat in the chair. Charlie nodded and partially waved at the tables residents, two sweet looking girls with pale blonde hair. Both had large chests, one wore a barely fitting dark brown shirt and the other a hardly fitting green vest (if it could even be called that), and both had muggle jeans, and a man with dark brown hair, pulled up into a messy bun, richly tanned skin, and deep brown eyes. He wore a maroon long sleeved shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, and more muggle jeans.

The two girls giggled at Charlie, who was still standing. The one on the left asked, "Who's your friend, Ethan?" They must've been from France, judging from their accents.

Ethan hummed. "This is Charlie." He said with his mouth full of salad. "He's new here, woke me up from my nap, and therefore already has one strike against him... No offense. Entirely not your fault, except that it is because you came early." Ethan took another bite of salad and groaned a bit when Charlie didn't sit at the table.

Ethan pushed a chair out to let Charlie know it was alright to sit, and Charlie took the invitation.

One girl held her hand out and introduced herself, "Hi, I'm Anne." Charlie shook her hand.

The other girl held up a hand and waved with all of her fingers, "Hi, I'm Not-Anne." Charlie wrinkled his brow, entirely confused.

"Oh. My. God. Not-Anne, tell me your fucking name! It's been two years, just tell me already!"

"I don't think I will." She giggled.

The man, who was looking at Ethan fondly, shook his head, affection shining in his eyes as he gazed at Ethan. Charlie couldn't fathom why. When he turned his sights to Charlie, the affection drained from his eyes, and he held his hand out for Charlie to shake. "I'm Romeo. My mother had a crush on the long deceased muggle, William Shakespeare, and his play, Romeo and Juliet, was her favorite." Romeo had a heavy Bulgarian accent. His tan must've come from long hours working with the dragons in the sunlight, Charlie decided.

"It's nice to meet you." Charlie shook his hand.

"Romeo will never meet his Juliet though." Anne and Not-Anne giggled to each other.

"Why is that?" Charlie asked curiously.

Ethan snorted unattractively. "Because he's a big ol' poof like me." Romeo laughed as of it were the best joke in the world. Ethan raised an eyebrow in his direction. "It's not going to happen, no matter how much you laugh at everything I say. Come off your high horse."

"I'll win you one day." Romeo attempted to put his elbow in the table and smile attractively, but missed and instead put it in his soup, causing him to grimace. The girls giggled mockingly, and tossed their crumpled up napkins at him.

Not-Anne reached her hand across the table towards Ethan's salad, stopping just short of actually touching his food. Ethan slid a large onion slice closer to her waiting fingers, and she grabbed it, breaking it in half before sticking it in her mouth and sucking on it. She held the other half up to her twins lips. Anne grabbed the onion slice half with her teeth and chewed on it happily.

"You both are absolutely disgusting." Ethan laughed. "You can have my other onions, you gross fiends."

They laughed, grabbed their forks and another napkin and started scooping the onions onto their respective napkins. Then, they proceeded to feed each other their onions, making a big show of moaning and groaning, complementing how good they tasted. Charlie shifted in his seat uncomfortably; Ethan made a disgusted face.

"You can't possibly tell me that those abominations are good. I refuse to believe it."

They laughed again. "No, they're actually not." Anne said.

"They got red onions, not the usual sweet onions." Not-Anne continued.

"We just wanted to make Charlie squirm a bit." Anne finished off.

"Now..." Not-Anne started. "Ethan...? My sweet." She batted her long blonde eyelashes at him. "Why is your hair blue? And your eyes brown?" She said overly sweetly. "Because I can remember, almost distinctly, that you were supposed to have pink hair and blue eyes when in our presence."

Ethan was quiet for a while. "Shit. I forgot. It's just normal for me to have blue hair and brown eyes. Let me fix that." Slowly his hair starting turning from blue to pink, and his eyes changed from brown to blue. When the transformation was complete, Ethan reached his hand out and took Not-Anne's hand in his and started stroking her knuckles with his thumb. "Is that better, my love? Have I healed the wound I've caused to your heart?"

"I think my heart is better." Not-Anne sniffed, fake crying.

Ethan dropped her hand quickly and wiped it on his jeans. "Good." He said before going back to eating. Two bites later, and his salad was finished. He passed an apple to Charlie without looking, and tucked into his soup.

Charlie was slightly surprised, having known a metamorphomagus in school. "You're a metamorphomagus? I thought they were rare in any blood line?"

Ethan hummed, looking up at Charlie from his food. "Well yeah." His mouth was full. He chewed a bit more before swallowing. "They are, but when your grandparents on both sides of your family, and your mum and dad are, you're pretty much guaranteed the trait." He went back to eating.

The other three made light conversation with Charlie and basically ignored Ethan all together. Charlie didn't touch the apple the entire time.

Soon enough, Ethan finished his soup, and passed his sandwich to Charlie. Charlie was confused but took it anyway, only for Ethan to grab his own apple and start munching on it.

"So," Romeo began. "What school did you go to?"

"Hogwarts, what other school would I have gone to?"

He didn't notice how quickly Ethan froze up.

"Hogwarts, eh? Ethan went there for a brief time." Anne commented.

"Yes, but that was before he transferred to the much better Beauxbatons and met us!" Not-Anne answered.

"Why did you transfer? Hogwarts is great." Charlie asked. Ethan stood abruptly and left, not answering Charlie's question. "Well," Charlie started. "It was nice to meet you all, but I guess we have to be going."

"Yeah, sure. You're welcome to sit with us whenever you want, alright?" Not-Anne said.

"Well, I have to be going as well. Ladies, Charlie." Romeo stood and started to leave.

"Oh, wait for me, Romeo! I'm finished here, and I really should get back to work." Anne said. She kissed Charlie on the cheek in goodbye, stuck her tongue out at her sister, and linked arms with Romeo before they both left.

Charlie waved to Not-Anne and left as well, but not before pocketing the apple.


	3. What Happened?

Charlie left the mess hall, scanning back and forth, trying to find either pink or blue hair, he wasn't entirely sure what color Ethan would have when he left in his hurry. When Charlie finally spotted Ethan, he hurried over to the now blue haired man. Ethan had his arms crossed over his chest, he was slightly hunched over in what Charlie supposed was thought, and he seemed to be walking faster than he previously had been.

"Ethan! Wait up!" Charlie called.

Ethan suddenly stopped where he stood and waited.

When Charlie finally caught up, he smiled slightly. "Hey, what was that back there?"

"What was what? Show me, you might need to know." Ethan replied.

"No... I meant in mess. I asked why you left Hogwarts, and you left without answering. I was just wondering if I said something wrong?"

Ethan was quiet for a while. Then he started walking again, but at a slower pace; Charlie followed diligently. "It can't be helped, I suppose."

"What?"

"Anyway," Ethan continued. "We're heading for the dragons now, so be prepared. Remember absolutely no dragon hide anything. Of course, if you're going to be anything like your previous Hogwarts counterparts, ignore whatever I have to say." Ethan seemed annoyed.

"No, no. That's good advice, I'm surprised that anyone wouldn't take it."

"You'd be surprised. Most of the time, no one takes me seriously because they're jackasses who like to make a point of disregarding anything and everything I say because I'm homosexual. Trust me. I will not hit on you, you're not my type. But be sure to cover your junk for fear of me seeing and attempting to cop a feel." Ethan finished sarcastically.

"I-I didn't think you would?"

Ethan hummed, unimpressed or unbelieving, Charlie didn't know. "Well, time to meet the dragons."

Ethan led him to an intricately grown wall of only trees; Charlie couldn't see anything past them, just more trees. The dirt path led to a wooden bridge, upon closer inspection, Charlie noticed that the bridge was made from a single, solid, dead tree, carved in the most intricate way; this tree was simply massive, it had to have been with how wide it was! Charlie carefully looked over the side of the bridge and saw a river running beneath it.

"Ethan!" Charlie whispered excitedly, beaming as widely as he could.

"What?" Ethan asked, turning toward him.

"This bridge is an architectural wonder! Have you seen it? What am I saying, of course you have!! You'd have to be blind to miss it!"

Ethan sighed. "Come on, Charlie." He grabbed Charlie's hand. "If you're impressed by a bridge, you'll be amazed by the dragons."

Charlie smiled wider and nodded his head. Ethan smiled tightly, turned away and started leading Charlie, by the hand, to the massive gate. Ethan waved his wand, the doors shook and opened just enough for the two of them to enter; the doors shut on their own behind them.

A few men who were loitering by the gate laughed when Ethan and Charlie made their way inside.

"Hey look!" One man, with red hair like Charlie's, yelled to the others. "Looks like Fairy Boy Ethan's got a new toy!" They all laughed.

"Yeah, and this one's got legs!!" Another man, darkly skinned, joined in.

Ethan's face got red, and he immediately dropped Charlie's hand. He crossed his arms across his chest and walked quickly away. Charlie followed, glaring at the men until he couldn't anymore.

When he caught up to Ethan, he grabbed the other man by the elbow and pulled him to a stop. Ethan wrenched his arm out of Charlie's grip. Charlie dropped the subject... For now, of course.

"Now, dragons."

Ethan introduced Charlie to every dragon type in the facility. "They're all allowed to roam free, wherever they please. We have barriers set up around the preserve, we all renew them everyday, just in case something happens. Not that it ever has. It's just a precaution. You'll notice that there are fewer trees around here. Did you wonder why?"

"Probably because the dragons burned them all down?"

"Not quite. You've got half of it right. It started with a difficult fire, and then the original residents, some of which are still here, decided that it would probably be wise to take out a few more trees to prevent it from happening again. Also, some of the dragons are large, and when they land, the trees tear the thin membranes on their wings. So then we have to track down a hurt dragon, somehow sedate them, and get them patched up before another dragon notices that one is injured."

"Will the other dragons ready harm another that's injured?"

"Yeah, of course. Dragons will try and kill you if you turn your back on them for too long."

As they wandered deeper into the sanctuary, Charlie asked questions and Ethan answered them to the best of his ability. Charlie heard a snap come from the trees surrounding them and looked around, trying to pinpoint where and what it is.

"Just ignore it, Charlie. It's probably just Douglass, and he'd never hurt me."

"Who's Douglass?"

"If he's stalking me, I'm sure you'll meet him soon enough."

Charlie was suddenly nervous. Who, or rather what, was Douglass?

"So what kind of dragons are here?" Charlie asked.

"There are quite a few, but the ones I know off the top of my head are Hungarian Horntail, Swedish Short-Snout, Welsh Green, Chinese Fireball, Romanian Longhorn, Ukrainian Ironbelly, and the-" a loud roar ripped from the left and rather large dragon came charging at them.

Charlie leaped to the side to get out of the barreling dragons way.

Ethan smiled widely at the dragon and held his arms out as if to try and catch the dragon in a hug. "Douglass!! There you are, my beauty!"

The dragon, Douglass apparently, slid to a stop and nearly toppled over onto Ethan in his haste to slow. The giant 37 foot in length dragon was brown at the feet and slowly transitioned to a green-ish hue with grey eyes.

At first, Charlie thought the dragon was a Hungarian Horntail and whipped his wand out quickly, ready to shoot multicoloured sparks at it to distract it from Ethan; until he noticed the black ridges along its back, Norwegian Ridgeback, then. He lowered his wand slightly, but didn't completely remove it from the equation.

Douglass chirped and growled happily, some embers sparking from his mouth in excitement. Douglass butted his massive head into Ethan's chest, knocking him to the ground.

Ethan wrapped his arms around Douglass's head, hugging him tightly. Ethan laughed happily when Douglass lifted his head, bringing Ethan up with him. When Ethan's feet were off the ground, he let go and dropped to the ground.

Ethan turned to Charlie. "Put that away, Charlie. Douglass would never hurt me, I told you that!"

Charlie pocketed his wand quickly. "Actually, you said that Douglass would never hurt you, you never said who Douglass was. I'm sorry, but when a dragon comes charging out of the trees at someone, I'm going to pull my wand out."

Douglass butted Ethan again happily, but much more lightly, causing Ethan to temporarily lose his footing and shift slightly. "Yeah, in hindsight I probably should have." He looked at Douglass fondly, smiled, and petted his head, smoothing along his shiny scales.

Romeo came barreling out of the forest moments later, one arm outstretched. He touched Douglass's front leg and triumphantly yelled, "Ha! I got you!!"

Charlie was stunned; they were playing a game of tag!

Douglass lifted his head, looked at Romeo, and wailed moodily.

Ethan laughed again and patted Douglass on the neck.

Romeo looked proud at having finally caught Douglass. "Ethan, Charlie." He greeted. "It's good that you've met Douglass, Charlie. He'll be a great friend to you, when he gets to know you better."

Douglass huffed, fire shooting from his slightly opened mouth before pushing a wing out and knocking Romeo over.

They all shared a laugh, Douglass looked less than enthused. Romeo and Douglass both joined Ethan and Charlie on the tour, Romeo making small quips here and there when Ethan started getting off topic or said something that wasn't entirely true.

Once the tour was over, and everyone they met on their journey had officially met Charlie, Douglass butted him on his back carefully, still unsure about the new member. Romeo decided this was the time to take his leave, Douglass was done playing with him, and he had other things to attend to.

"Go ahead and pet him Charlie. He wants to make friends." Ethan told him softly.

Charlie looked at him, a bit unsure, before he held his hand out, treating Douglass as if he were a hippogriff; let them accept you first before attempting to pet. 

Douglass didn't even bother with sniffing Charlie before he pressed his head cautiously into it. Charlie smiled a bit at him before running his hand over smooth, brown-green scales. He looked over at Ethan and smiled a bit wider when he saw that Ethan was keeping a close eye on Douglass; even though he trusted Douglass with his own life, he didn't trust Douglass with someone else's life. Ethan noticed Charlie looking at him from the corner of his eye and flicked his faze to Charlie. Charlie's smile must've been contagious because Ethan smiled at him softly.

Douglass noticed that Ethan wasn't paying him any attention anymore and snapped his jaw where it was, not going after anyone, but letting his intentions be known.

"Douglass, you stop that. I don't have to always pay attention to you, I can look at someone else."

Douglass turned his head to Ethan and snapped his jaw again.

"I will push you over! You just try me!"

Douglass snapped his jaw again, but this time it was much closer to Ethan than Charlie would have liked.

Ethan stood his ground for a solid 30 seconds before he marched over to Douglass and shoved him carelessly on his side. Douglass went willingly, that much Charlie was sure of.

"There. Now that you're on your side, you big lug, what are you going to do? Apologize, maybe?"

Douglass flopped his head on the ground, looked up at Charlie with big, grey, doe eyes, and grumbled.

"He said he's sorry."

"Oh, well apology accepted, Douglass. Don't let it happen again." Charlie patted him on the nose.

Douglass breathed heavily out of his nose, closed his eyes and let Charlie pet him.

Ethan sat down at Douglass's head and started petting him as well. Charlie sat close to Ethan, but not too close to make him uncomfortable.

"So how did the two of you meet?" Charlie asked softly.

"His mother either abandoned the nest or she was slain. We aren't completely sure which, but we can assume another dragon attacked her and she died. We found the eggs, they were chilled, but not cold. So we took them to a homemade incubator. Douglass was the only one that hatched."

"So you raised him?"

"Well, not me personally. We played a lot when he was growing up. Normally dragons that are raised by humans are friendly, but not this friendly. He's just a rare case, I guess."

Douglass heaved a great huff, blowing dust in their faces. Ethan laughed quietly at Douglass's childish behavior while Charlie just smiled.

"How old is he?"

"About breeding age, now. He should be picking a mate soon, and then we'll see less and less of him. I'll miss the bugger, but it's what he was born to do."

"Who knows, he might even bring his babies around so we can all play." Charlie suggested brightly.

"I think... That would be nice." Ethan smiled at Charlie, happiness lighting his eyes.

A few moments passed, Charlie had reclined on Douglass as far as the dragon would let him and was starting to doze off when Ethan stood up. He started to sway on his feet and almost collapsed. Charlie quickly stood and grabbed Ethan to help center him.

"I'm sorry." Ethan mumbled. "I have hypoglycemia, and my blood sugar must be low." Douglass lifted his head to see what all of the commotion was about.

"How can you tell?" Charlie asked quietly.

"For me, I can hear a loud ringing my ears, the whole world is spinning, and I'm starting to feel pins and needles in my fingers."

"You're also shaking, here sit down again." Charlie helped him sink slowly to the ground. Suddenly Charlie remembered that he had an apple in his pocket. He fished it out quickly. "Here, eat this. It might help?"

Ethan looked over, smiled and took the apple. "Thank you." He took small bites of the apple, eating everything except for the seeds and the stem. Half an hour later, Ethan's shaking stopped.

"How are you, now?"

"I'm much better. Before we head for home, I need to stop by mess hall and grab a couple of sugar packets or a glass of orange juice."

"Alright, that's fine. Just let me know if you need help, okay?"

Later that night in their cabin

"Who were those guys from earlier? The ones by the gate? And what did they mean by new toy?" Charlie asked, genuinely concerned.

"A bunch of Hogwarts arseholes. If you noticed, they were wearing dragon hide vests, boots, and gloves. They all made a point to disregard everything I said. They're not allowed to work with the dragons, the first thing they did was torture one because it stood it's ground or tried to avenge it's fallen brothers because of their fucking gloves!" Ethan's voice cracked. "They're part of the reason why I was made fun of for being gay at Hogwarts. Always afraid that I'll "contaminate" them, and infect them with "the gay". They are why I don't like anyone from there!"

"But I went to Hogwarts, and I'm not like them at all!" Charlie argued.

"Then you're going to have to make up for their bad reputation!" Ethan yelled back.

Charlie was quiet for a long while. "I will."

"What?" Ethan asked, confused.

"I will. I'll change your mind about people who come from Hogwarts. I'll show you that not all us are bad."

Ethan grunted. "You do that."

"Now. New toy?"

Ethan huffed a laugh. "They think you and I are fucking."

"Why?" Charlie asked, unconsciously looking disgusted.

"Because I held your hand, of course. Don't worry though," Ethan sneered. "It won't happen again."

"Uh-huh. And what was that about me having legs?"

"Sex toy reference." Ethan stripped down until he was wearing nothing and crawled into bed. "Good night, Charlie."

"Yeah, night Ethan." Charlie sat there on the couch for a while, lost in thought. Eventually, when he heard Ethan snoring slightly, he decided to turn in himself.


	4. The First Letter Home

It had been a week since Charlie started work at the sanctuary. Ethan had woken him up every morning at the ass crack of dawn for the past 6 days. Today was his 24 hours to himself.

And Charlie hadn't sent a single letter home to his mum.

In his defense, the second he came home, he was so knackered that all he did was shower and sleep. But today was his 24 hours to himself. He could spend two or more hours detailing his current experience at the sanctuary to his mother.

But Charlie didn't have any parchment. Does Ethan have any? Charlie wondered.

But Ethan was asleep, and Charlie really didn't want to wake him.

Well, I guess if I have to. Charlie thought.

He walked over to Ethan's bed and looked down at his sleeping roommate. He looked so peaceful, almost smothering himself with several fluffy pillows and at least three different comforters, judging from the varying colours.

He also looked incredibly tired, and he probably should have. After all, his left arm and leg had been seriously burned from dragon fire only 3 days ago. He had been rubbing a burn cream into the wound carefully, only asking Charlie to help the first day when it had been horrible. Charlie didn't like remembering how Ethan almost broke down because his arm and leg hurt so badly.

"Ethan." He said gently, liftng a hand and shaking him.

Ethan stirred slightly.

"Ethan." Charlie tried again, smiling a little bit at the tired noises Ethan was making.

Ethan cracked his eyes open. "The fuck do you want?" Of course he was crabby, what else would Charlie expect?

"Do you have parchment and a quill? I haven't written my mother a letter, and I'd prefer not to get a howler or have her assume I've died."

Ethan stretched, joints popping. "Even better, I've got lined paper with 3 holes punched in the side and a muggle invention called "pens"."

"What are the holes for?"

"I have no idea. But they're evenly spaced for whatever purpose muggles have for it. Bottom drawer, the pink, green, blue and purple pens are nice." Ethan paused for a minute and watched as Charlie made his way over to the drawer, grabbed variously coloured pens and some lined paper. "Do I feel cold to you? Because I'm fucking freezing."

"It's a bit chilly in here, that might be what you're feeling." Charlie commented. He stepped back over to Ethan and felt his right arm, avoiding his left entirely. He was freezing. "Yeah, you're a bit cold. How can I help?"

"I dunno, you probably can't." Ethan sighed tiredly.

"I bet Romeo could." Charlie grinned and winked.

Ethan scoffed and rolled his eyes. "Fuck no."

Charlie laughed at his blunt attitude. "Anyway, thank you for the paper, I'll return your pens when I'm finished."

"Mm-hmm." Ethan hummed, closing his eyes and returning to sleep.

And so Charlie sat and wrote his letter to his mum. He wrote about how much he loved it here, he wrote about his first encounter with Douglass, he wrote about how the food was good, but not as good as hers, and finally he wrote about his roommate. He didn't write about anything personal about Ethan, just let her know how they got on. He may have fibbed, a bit, and let her think that they got on better than they really did, but he said nothing bad about him.

When Charlie finished his letter, he read it over, crossed out what he didn't like, rewrote it, folded it up, and decided to take a nap until Ethan woke up so he could show him where he could send his letter off.  
__________

"Hey Ethan?" Charlie called suddenly as they were heading for the owlry.

"Yes, Charlie?" Ethan replied groggily.

"Do you ever write to your parents?" Charlie asked, genuinely curious.

Ethan barked a laugh. "No! They're bloody tossers! Fuck em, I say."

"Why is that?" How could anyone hate their patently like that?

"They want me to marry someone. Someone I don't know. Someone from the other side of the farm." At Charlie's confused look, Ethan continued. "A female, Charlie. They want me to marry a female. I'm sure you can see how that's a problem."

"Oh yeah I can see that." Charlie was quiet for a moment. "I'm sorry, about that. I know I shouldn't be sorry, but its just shit."

"Yeah, it is. But what can you do? I've always loved dragons more than them, though. I don't think it was too much of a shock."

"It's still shit." Charlie mumbled.

"Yeah. Maybe we can convince them to let you marry her? She's pretty, even by my standards."

"Yeah, sure!" Charlie laughed. "Why buy the whole bee farm for just a little bit of honey?"

Ethan laughed brightly. "You know, we have a saying almost like that for gay men."

"Yeah? What is it?"

"Why buy the whole cow for just one sausage?"

Charlie laughed, loud and hard. Of course Ethan would say something like that!


	5. What's Up With Douglass?

Months had passed, Charlie made sure to write to his mother every week, and Christmas was fast approaching; Charlie was excited. He wanted to go home to his family and tell them all how wonderful it was here in person, not just through letters.

But that's not what made Charlie the happiest; Ethan was starting to warm up to Charlie's presence more and more everyday. When Ethan had seen just how carefully he'd approached their newest arrival, a young Chinese Fireball that had been picked on at the previous preserve for being so small, and how quickly the dragon had calmed in his presence before being released from the cage, Ethan had to admit he was impressed.

"Maybe I won't be disappointed, this time around." he had said as they left for a late lunch. He had smiled a slight bit wider, sweat rolling down his neck and staining his white shirt a pale yellow.

Charlie had beamed so wide.

After their lunch, Anne and Not-Anne had invited the both of them to their cabin later that week for some girl talk.

"What does that mean?" Charlie asked.

"I don't know, they probably want to talk about cute celebrities, both magical and muggle, which we'd all like to fuck or be fucked by. You know, girl stuff." Ethan easily replied as if it didn't phase him in the slightest.

"Why doesn't that phase you?" Charlie argued.

"What?" Ethan laughed.

"You act like this is a normal occurrence, as if you three always talk about getting... you know-"

"Fucked?" Ethan supplied.

"Exactly, that-by celebrity boys-"

"Ah. But I never mentioned boys, Charlie." Ethan interrupted. "If they're cute, my legs open for just about anyone."

"I didn't need to know that." Charlie looked uneasy.

Ethan laughed high and bright, his entire face lighting up in the best ways with absolute joy. Charlie was starting to suspect he enjoyed making him uncomfortable. "Oh, Charlie. Don't be such a prude. Anyway, to answer your previous question, it is, in fact, a normal occurrence for us. We get together every month or so, spend time with each other, talk about cute people, talk about ourselves, reminisce about our time at Beauxbatons, absolutely adorable boys from there, sometimes we even discuss a couple of Veela girls we knew and still keep in touch with that are still single, I don't know why they are though, they're absolutely adorable and sweet. I've known Anne the longest, I think. I met her our last year at Beauxbatons, we gradually became friends, and she invited me into her room. Which is when I met her sister that I always thought was her, hence the Anne and Not-Anne situation." Ethan explained slowly, catching Charlie's eye.

Charlie met his eyes with his own and noticed how Ethan's eyes lit up pleasantly, his inner happiness showing through so perfectly. Charlie smiled easily, Ethan did the same. Suddenly, Douglass charged through the trees soon after they had entered the tree line, so unbelievably happy to see Ethan that he knocked him down, but turned somewhat annoyed when he spotted Charlie chuckling next to him.

Charlie stopped his laughter when he noticed the look in Douglass's eyes and approached Ethan cautiously; after all, a dragon was very near and didn't look pleased. Charlie held his arm out to try and help Ethan to his feet, not quite taking his eyes completely off of Douglass, but when Ethan reached his hand out to grab Charlie by the wrist and pull himself up, Douglass knocked their hands apart grumpily. He turned to face Charlie head on and growled fiercely at him, poisonous saliva was starting to drip from his maw; Charlie copied what he had seen Ethan do multiple times and stood his ground, not letting himself show how intimidated he really was.

"Oi, Douglass!!" Ethan had enough gall to smack the dragon on the underside of his neck. Douglass turned his eye onto Ethan, not taking his head from Charlie's direction; Charlie took extreme caution and put his hand on his wand. "You stop that! Charlie's a people, you're not. You don't get to growl at him like he's some monster! Besides." Ethan helped himself up. "He was helping me up. You weren't. Now knock it off." Ethan put his hands on his hips and glared at Douglass. Douglass growled horribly deep, rattling their bones to the core. Ethan stamped his foot in retaliation.

Douglass blew a plume of smoke in Ethan's direction petulantly just as Ethan was taking a breath, spread his wings wide, and took off, leaving a plume of dust in his wake.

Ethan coughed and waved his hand around to try and disperse the smoke and dust more quickly.

Charlie moved to his friends side once he felt it was safe enough. "Are you alright?"

"Fuck if I'm alright, what the fuck did you do to him?!" Ethan yelled at Charlie. "He's never like that around anyone, so obviously you must've done something to him!"

"I didn't do anything, Ethan." Charlie said softly, trying to calm his friend. "I don't know what happened. We were friends yesterday, at least I thought we were. He was following me around most of the day, though I guess he might have been acting strange?"

"Strange how?" Ethan was still mad, Charlie could tell, but he was expecting an explanation before he launched into a tirade if it wasn't something he wanted to hear.

"I don't know, he wasn't trying to hurt me, he wasn't anything like today, but he was definitely... off? I don't know how to explain it, it was like he was just keeping an eye on me for some reason? I got the feeling that if I did something he didn't like, I'd get a face full of fire."

Ethan looked lost and sad, his eyes welling up with unshed tears; Ethan usually cried when he switched from angry to any other emotion, Charlie noticed. "I'll have to ask around, see if anyone else has had this problem. Starting with Romeo. That's odd behavior."

After their day was finished, Ethan joined Charlie, Not-Anne, and Romeo at their usual table.

"I'm sorry for the way I acted earlier Charlie." Ethan passed Charlie a slice of vanilla cake. "I hope this makes up for it."

Charlie chuckled. "You don't have to give me cake to win back my friendship."

"Good." Ethan slid his slice of cake back over to himself. "No cake for you from me then."

Romeo gasped dramatically. "When we have lovers spats you never give me cake in recompense!" He acted hurt.

Ethan raised a pink eyebrow at him, just now remembering that he should have pink hair and blue eyes. "We don't bunk together." Ethan ignored the "lovers spat" remark.

"We could, you know." He rested his elbow on the table and his head in his hand. "We could make such sweet music, lyubovnik."

"How about "No."? Or rather, "It's never going to happen, no matter how many times you ask."?"

"I will keep saying it until it's true: I'll win your heart one day."

"No, you really won't." Ethan turned to Not-Anne when he heard her giggle--cackle, more like. "So, Not-Anne. Where's Anne?"

She shrugged. "I think she might be in our cabin; her trousers were horribly ripped from a tree climbing accident. When did you want to come over for girl time?"

"I'm not sure. Charlie can still come, yeah?"

"Of course, it's difficult to play certain games with just the three of us. I hope you don't mind Veronica joining us. I'd love to get into her pants."

"Not-Anne." Ethan raised his eyebrow, skepticism shining clearly in his blue eyes. "You only want to wear her pants, please don't phrase it that way."

"You can't blame me! I am French, I don't understand your English phrases."

"What kind games?" Charlie asked with his mouth partially full, attempting to change the subject before anyone else said anything double-edged.

"Don't speak when your mouth is full, Charlie." Ethan said without thinking.

Not-Anne laughed behind her hand deceitfully cutely. "You'll just have to wait and see, dream ship~."

"It's dreamboat, Not-Anne."

She waved her hand back and forth. "Same thing."

Charlie swallowed his mouthful. "I guess we'll go when Ethan wants to."

"Tomorrow then."

"Will you be joining us, Romeo?"

The three of them laughed. "No, no no no. Never again. Yes, it was fun, yes, I enjoyed the pretty coloured drinks, but never again." As the laughter died down, Romeo turned to look at Ethan. "So, Ethan. What happened? You're absolutely filthy."

Ethan chuckled uncomfortably. "Douglass. For some reason, he was pissy with Charlie."

Not-Anne turned to glare at Charlie. She put her dainty hands on her hips. "What did you do to him?"

"I didn't do anything!" Charlie tried explaining. "We were fine yesterday."

Not-Anne and Romeo didn't look convinced but otherwise dropped the subject.

They continued chatting amongst themselves quietly in the dining hall. Ethan had stolen a bite from each of their plates before deciding he enjoyed whatever it was that Romeo had, some sort of stew containing beef in a beet broth, and stole a few more bites. Charlie noticed that Romeo had nudged his bowl over to Ethan slightly and didn't touch it after Ethan decided he liked it, Romeo's eyes never leaving Not-Anne. Charlie wondered if this was a normal occurrence.

Eventually, the bowl had made its way in front of Ethan. Once Ethan realized what he'd done, he passed the near empty bowl back over to Romeo and apologized.

"If you like it, it is yours. There is no need for apologies."

"No, it's alright." Ethan's face was slightly pink, his gaze was focused on his slice of cake. He picked up the cake with his bare hands and took a bite from it.

Romeo gazed at him for a bit before he shrugged, picked his spoon back up, and finished the last of the stew.

A few moments after Charlie finished his meal, Ethan said goodnight to his friends, and disposed of their combined dinnerware appropriately. Afterward, he and Charlie made their way to their back to their cabin.  
__________

There was a knock at the door that night while Charlie was pulling his leather boots off, Ethan was in the shower, cleaning himself of soot put there from Douglass's firey outburst earlier that day.

When Charlie pulled the door open, a woman he hadn't met formally yet, but did recognize from the owlry, was standing in the doorway. She was darkly skinned, with the brightest green eyes he'd ever seen. She was dressed in a vibrant, loose red dress, hair pulled back with a red ribbon into a bushy ball on the back of her head. She was beautiful; Charlie was definitely going to ask for her name.

"It seems the two of you have packages!" She said, holding up two brightly wrapped gifts of equal proportions.

Charlie accepted them both with a smile, read the tags, smiled brightly when he saw that Ethan had gotten a Weasley Jumper for Christmas from Charlie's mother, and put Ethan's on his bed. The tag also said to not open them until Christmas, but Charlie doubted he could wait another week. He loved his mother's jumpers; they were always so warm and smelled just like home.

Maybe Ethan should open his sooner, he's been so cold lately. Charlie thought.

"Thank you, miss." Charlie faltered at the end.

"Veronica." She smiled, white teeth in stark contrast to her dark skin. "Who's it from?"

"Charlie." He introduced. "They're from my mother." Charlie blushed. "She always makes a jumper for each of her kids every year. This year, she made one for Ethan as well. I guess she likes him enough from what I've told her in my letters."

She smiled wider. "You do send a lot of those. Well, I'll take my leave. I'll see you in a couple of days, yeah?" Charlie suddenly wanted to kiss her. What kind of magical creature was she?

"Yeah, yeah of course. It's a pleasure to know your name, now."

"You as well." She waved goodbye and left, hips swaying as she walked away.

I'm going to need to take a cold shower. Charlie thought.

The running water in the bathroom shut off, and Ethan stepped out moments later, wearing nothing but a towel wrapped around his waist.

"The shower is yours, Charlie." He said quietly. "If I'm asleep before you get out, goodnight. Oh, but your face is red." He grinned evilly. "Who was at the door? A pretty young bird, perhaps?"

Charlie flushed harder, his entire face feeling like someone lit it on fire. "Maybe. Shut up and take your gift!" Charlie tossed his gift onto his bed.

Ethan laughed, sounding like a nymph or some sort of fairy of the forest. But then he looked confused. His eyes caught the brightly wrapped gift, so he stepped over to it and picked it up gently. "What's this?" He smiled a bit. He read the tag. " "Molly"?" He looked over to Charlie, utterly confused; he didn't know a "Molly". 

"My mother. I write to her every week and sometimes I tell her about you. Nothing bad, of course. She just likes to know who I'm rooming with, what they're like, if I'm getting properly fed. You know, mother things." Charlie's face still felt hot.

Ethan's smile grew a bit wider. "Well, tell her I said thank you. This is very sweet..." Ethan paused briefly. "Do I have to wait until Christmas to open it?"

"I wasn't." Charlie chuckled. "You can open it now, I'm sure you'll like it even more once you see it."

Ethan smiled before carefully tearing into the paper. Once he saw royal purple knit fabric, he tore the wrapping further. He pulled the purple knit jumper from the paper and unfolded it neatly. He held it into himself and smiled so wide Charlie was half afraid his mouth would fall off. He looked up to Charlie with eyes slightly squinty with joy before he hurriedly pulled it on. It was far too large for him, the sleeves falling past his hands, almost completely covering his fingertips, and the length of the torso fell down past his thighs, almost going do his knees. The neck hole was a bit too large for Ethan, but it wasn't too bad; should he put one of his shirts on under it, no one would be able to notice. Ethan removed his towel from under his new jumper and giggled happily when he saw just how much it covered.

"Mum must've made yours based on Bill's. He's tall and broad enough to fit this perfectly." Charlie pulled at the knit lightly, trying to determine just how large it really was. "It's also on backwards."

"On backwards? How can you tell?"

"Mum always puts the first letter of your name onto the front of the jumper." Charlie chuckled.

Ethan gasped slightly and turned to try and see the letter, spinning twice in place, before he gave up, pulled his arms into the sleeves and into the torso and turned it around entirely without ever taking it off. He pushed his arms through the sleeves, grabbed the hem of the jumper and pulled it a bit away from himself to see a bright yellow E emblazoned on the front.

"What a gorgeous jumper, tell your mother I said thank you in your next letter to her." Ethan looked up at Charlie with absolute joy in his eyes and a wide grin on his lips. Veronica must've put a spell on Charlie, because now he wanted to kiss Ethan!

"Open yours, I want to see what it looks like." Ethan sat on his bed, gazing at him impatiently.

"Alright, alright." Charlie mumbled placatingly. He grabbed his gift from off of his bed and tore into it.

It was a dark blue that gradated to a light blue unevenly. His mother must've used previously used yarn batches from earlier years to make his, not that he was complaining. His C was a simple red. He showed it to Ethan before tugging it on. Immediately he was enveloped in the warmth and smell of home. This gift opening thing felt oddly intimate, Charlie wondered why.

"That's a beautiful jumper, Charlie." Ethan commented, smiling brightly still. "Your mother does amazing work."

"Yeah, she really does." Charlie smiled to himself. "I love how warm they are."

Ethan buried his nose in the sleeves covering his hands. "They smell good, too. Like good food, warm beds and happy memories."

"You should come over for Christmas, Ethan. That way you can try her good food." He scratched the back of his neck.

"Yeah, I probably should. It's too bad I've already got plans with Anne and Not-Anne."

"And what if they should suddenly have to cancel?"

"Then I guess I go to yours." Ethan paused. "If your parents permit, of course."

"Yeah, of course they will. They love company."

Ethan smiled happily. He was still smiling as he turned away from Charlie, continuing to admire his new, incredibly warm and delightfully soft jumper.

The need to kiss him still didn't vanish, and it was getting harder for Charlie to resist.

"So, um. Ethan?"

"Yeah?" Ethan looked back at him. His eyes sparkled so prettily, as of the stars formed in them and were released into the sky with every blink.

Charlie raised a hand and gently caressed Ethan's cheek. Wizard God, did he want to kiss this man. Ethan was a whole lot closer than he had been before, but that was fine. Charlie's eyes slid closed as he leaned in further.

Ethan's eyes widened before he slapped Charlie's hand away and leaned back as far as he could without it looking like he was giving Charlie his implied consent. "I think you should shower and go to bed. I'm tired, so shoo." Ethan shooshed him away.

"Yeah, right." Charlie rubbed the back of his neck. "Sorry, about that. I didn't mean to almost kiss you without your permission."

"Yeah, it's no problem. Make sure you ask, next time... I-I mean, not next time, but." He left the sentence hanging. Ethan watched as Charlie entered the bathroom and closed the door behind him.

"Good god. Charlie was going to kiss me." He whispered, absolutely... pleased?

No. No! Charlie is my friend! Ethan was horrified, this isn't how he should be feeling when his friend was involved! He brought his hands up to his mouth and breathed hard through his fingers, trying to calm himself. When he heard the water start running, he relaxed slightly.

He leaned back on his bed, back pressed into his many pillows, and started rubbing his hands up, down, and across his jumper. It was so soft, Ethan couldn't get enough of it. He was toying with it for a while, well past when his eyelids felt heavy and his eyes closed of their own volition.

He heard the door open, heard Charlie step out, and say something quietly. Heard Charlie's deep rumble of a laugh and felt his so very warm hands move his legs before blankets were piled on top of him.

Just before he drifted off to sleep, he felt something warm and firm press to his cheek, the side of his mouth, and finally the tip of his nose.

"Good night, Ethan."


	6. Girl Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> FROM THIS POINT ON: I'm going to post pseudo half chapters with some dialogue. I'm just far too kind to get it done the right way and keep readers waiting for months at a time for a new chapter, so instead it'll be half arsed because I'm just so nice. I'll try and fix it up better at a later date, but as of now it's... well. This.
> 
> Enjoy!

Ethan and Charlie arrive at Anne and Not-Anne's cabin. Veronica is already there, having been "invited" (read: forcibly taken) to their cabin earlier that day, and judging by her normally makeup free face, Anne and Not-Anne got over their make over obsession quickly.

They all talk about cute celebrities for a while, Charlie even commenting about how the Weird Sisters cellist, Merton Graves, was "pretty cute... Stop laughing, Ethan!", when Charlie changes the subject after being relentlessly tormented by his supposed friend; favorite magical creatures of all times and why.

After a while, Anne gets bored and sits in Charlie's lap, facing him. She acts like she's going to kiss him, but instead braids his long hair into several small braids. Not-Anne does the same with Ethan, who is forced to grow his hair out longer for the both of their enjoyment (meaning less pained yelling from Ethan, and loud French swears from Not-Anne). Next they move onto themselves and then Veronica who is just giggling like a madman because 2 very pretty girls are braiding her hair all extravagantly while making inappropriate jokes in French.

Once the girls tire of that, they blindside Charlie, wrap a blindfold around his eyes tightly, and his wrists bound with a binding charm, and shove him into the closet where bye waits for a long while until the door opens and someone else is shoved in. Charlie can't see who they are, but still jokingly asks what they're in for. They smell of artificial strawberry and whipped cream, which helped none because they were all sprayed several times by Not-Anne before even entering the door.

This other person puts their hands on the side of Charlie's face and moves it gently in a side to side motion, silently telling him that the other person won't speak. They might have been charmed not to, Charlie didn't know.

Charlie agrees and next thing he knows, petal soft lips are touched to his gently in a barely there gesture. Once they pull away, Charlie chases after them and kisses the person more roughly than intended. The other person kisses back with equal ferocity, leaving both of them panting when they pull away for the second time.

"I want to know who you are." Charlie whispers.

The person shakes Charlie's head in a no fashion again, making Charlie sigh.

"Alright, I understand." He continued to whisper. "But that doesn't mean I agree with it. Just know that kissing you feels right. I wouldn't be opposed to doing it again."

The person shakes Charlie's head a bit harder this time.

"No? Why not? I thought we had a thing going on." Charlie grinned. He heard a quiet giggle, not charmed then, and then those soft lips were back on his.

He could tell the other person was smiling by the feel of their lips pressed firmly onto his. When he felt something warm and wet press against his lips, he groaned quietly and opened his mouth and allowed the person access to plunder as they pleased.

He wanted so badly to put his hands on the other person's hips, but he knew that if he did that, he'd feel their chest to determine who it could possibly be, but alas. His hands were bound.

The person pulled away shortly after deepening the kiss, and pulled themselves into Charlie's lap before they wrapped their arms around his neck and kissed him again. 

All too soon, the person pulled away.

"Don't go." Charlie whispered.

The person kissed him quickly once. They pet his hair and smoothed it gently before standing and leaving the room.

Charlie is released and has to guess who it was. He picks Not-Anne. He is wrong, and has to sit in an uncomfortable chair for an hour (shut up, it was the best punishment they could think of on such short notice.)

Ethan comes over after a while and jokingly asks how the kiss was, big Cheshire cat grin on his face.

Charlie's face turns bright red. He says that it was "good. Just good."

Ethan doesn't buy it. So he asks what was good about it.

Charlie changes the topic to ask who it was in the closet, since he chose wrong.

Ethan says he can't tell, and Anne and Not-Anne will be doing that thing where one speaks in truths and the other in lies, so he might as well ask Veronica.

And thus Charlie does... Once his punishment time is over.

Not-Anne grabs Ethan and drags him and her sister to the couch, they've had a few drinks and therefore get very slutty with the three of them involved. They then commence platonic making out, Ethan thoroughly enjoying kissing his girlfriends.

Veronica finds their antics funny, and Charlie uses that to his advantage, trying to act cool and suave around the attractive lady. She sees right through it but pretends she doesn't.

After a while, the made it onto Anne's bed, considering the couch was taken up by 3 bodies. They chatted quietly for a while, and then Charlie brought up the closet. Veronica laughed boisterously; Charlie didn't like her laugh much, but her face was pretty, so he supposed he could spend an evening with her. As her laughter died down, she declared that she couldn't tell him anything, her mouth had been charmed to keep silent on the matter, she's only allowed to laugh about it, but she hopes Charlie understands.

He thinks he does.

After a while, Charlie decides to end the party after Ethan fell over the back of the couch from to many colourful drinks and hit his head on the wooden floors.

On their walk home, Ethan loudly whisper-shouts to Charlie that he's always had a little bit of a crush on Romeo, but he doesn't want Romeo to know because Ethan doesn't think he, Ethan, would make a good boyfriend.

He also leans heavily on Charlie and whispers into Charlie's cheek that he "thinks Charlie is pretty cute, as well... But don't tell Charlie~!" And he giggles and stumbles away.

Charlie is left slightly shocked, but then shakes his head affectionately; Ethan has no idea what he's talking about.

They eventually arrive at their cabin. Ethan strips down to nothing before he even gets through the door, and Charlie picks up what he drops before tossing it in front of Ethan's bed.

"Charlie." A naked Ethan leans up on him. "Can I wear your clothes to bed tonight? I'm cold."

"You wouldn't be cold if you didn't take your clothes off, you dummy." Charlie knocks on Ethan's head.

Ethan bats Charlie's hand away lazily. "No, no, but listen." He whispers. "I need to borrow your clothes." He starts tugging at Charlie's shirt.

"Why do you need them?" He grabs Ethan's wrists and pulls them away from his clothes.

"They're warm. And I'm cold. Now take them off please." 

Charlie concedes. He pulls his shirt off and slips it over Ethan's head.

Ethan giggles happily and pulls it on the wrong way before going to his bed. He plops down on it face first.

Charlie shakes his head and undresses only to put on a pair of pajama pants and climb into his own bed, pulling his blanket on top of him.

Just before he fell asleep, he felt the blanket lift and a chilled body climb in beside him.

"You know what I think, Charlie?" Ethan whispered. "I think Romeo would keep me warmer than you would. You should work on that before you lose me."

Charlie grunted noisily, a smile slipping onto his face.

"Shut up and go to sleep, you arsehole."

But Ethan already was.


	7. "Douglass, Stop!"

Anne and Not-Anne found out about Charlie's want to bring Ethan to his house, so they politely told Ethan that they didn't want him there for Christmas. There would be drinks, and Anne complained about some nonexistent std she got from Ethan.

And so, Ethan and Charlie arrive to the Weasley household for Christmas dinner, each wearing his jumper.

Ethan meets the rest of Charlie's family, Molly makes comment about how large his jumper is and says that she can take it in a bit, if he'd like?

Ethan insists that it's alright, he usually wears baggy jumpers anyway, they make him feel more at home.

Molly smiles in delight and welcomes him in a big, warm hug. She tells the both of them that Arthur, her husband, will be arriving later that day, but the rest of the family was there, minus Bill; he'd be along shortly.

Ethan is introduced to Percy, Charlie's first younger brother. Ethan didn't like him much.

Then he was introduced to "the twins", Fred and George... Or was it Fred and George? Anyway. Ethan liked them, they seemed like Ethan's type of people. He hoped they could get into all kinds of mischief together.

Then Ethan met Ron, Charlie's fourth youngest brother. Ethan found it sad that he felt he was the unnoticed one that didn't particularly have any kind of specialty about him as he had introduced himself almost as if it were an afterthought.

And finally he met Ginny, Charlie's only sister. She was timid at first, but when Ethan started joking around with her, she warmed up to him and showed her true colours. The little shit practically threatened that if Ethan hurt her brother in anyway, she'd personally torture his very existence.

Bill arrived after the introductions, and introduced himself, casually trying to flirt with Ethan just to gauge his younger brother, Charlie's, reaction. Ethan didn't take the bait. But he wanted to, holy shit Bill is attractive!

Arthur arrives a little while later, Ethan likes him rather a lot, quirks and all. He asks a lot of questions about muggle inventions, but Ethan hardly knows anything about muggle things. He makes a mental note to bring by the lined paper and pens for Arthur's amusement.

All of the family and Ethan were acting as rambunctious and foolhardy as if it were completely normal. Charlie started absently petting Ethan's back whenever possible, and Ethan casually leaned in at the touch. Bill quirked his eyebrow, how interesting.

Then, Ethan asked to use the bathroom in the most polite way ("Fred, George, I've got to piss. Where do you usually do it?" They gestured to the door to outside and a window, making Ethan laugh even more before Bill had enough of their antics and finally showed him up to the toilet.)

As Ethan was leaving after doing his business, Bill was still standing outside the door.

"Can I help you?" Ethan asked.

"Yeah." He replied. "I just wanted to know how my brother is."

"He's fine, I suppose. We get along better now, so he should be. I'm a gem; a bit rough around the edges, but once I take a shine to you, I sparkle like a vampire."

"Oh yeah?" Bill asked. "Just fine? Not like, spectacular?" He paused. "Also, vampire don't sparkle."

Ethan was confused. "You just wait. And you might want to ask him that question. Unless of course you're asking about sex."

Bill nodded.

"Then you might want to speak to all of the girls he's been with." Ethan was such a lair, he just wanted to embarrass Charlie.

He tried moving passed him, but was blocked by a muscular arm. A shiver ran down Ethan's back and he was suddenly incredibly grateful for his long his jumper was. Just then he wondered which room was Bill's, or if they'd go off somewhere for further... discussion.

"Is that jealousy I hear?"

"No? We're just friends. I'm confident I can say that now. I'd like to be friends with you as well." Ethan smiled politely.

Bill chuckled slightly, shook his head while shrugging and let him pass, following him down the stairs. Ethan concentrated on the stairs and not on the (incredibly attractive) person behind him.

Christmas dinner is served, Molly making several comments about how long Charlie let his hair get before insisting that she'd cut it after dinner.

Ethan silently hoped she wouldn't, but silent pleas get you nowhere, Ethan supposed as Charlie's pretty red locks fell to the floor in a choppy mess.

Bill cornered Ethan some time later and asked if he'd like to join him outside.

"For some fun."

Ethan was quick to agree.

A smile came across Bill's face, and he grabbed Ethan's hand and dragged him outside. A broom was shoved into the same hand as the came up to the rest of the family.

"This is definitely not what I had in mind when you asked if I wanted to join you outside, Bill."

And of course Bill laughed, knowing completely what Ethan had in mind.

After a rousing game of quidditch, Charlie and Ethan bade their goodbyes, Bill promising Ethan that he'd get letters in the mail from him.

"I'll definitely look forward to those." Ethan nodded. "Please include photographs."

Bill laughed. He had a nice laugh.

They arrived home in Romania, Ethan too tired to bathe before bed. So he just plonked himself down on the closest bed (Charlie's), pulled his shoes off, and fell asleep, smelling nothing but Charlie. His scent seeped into Ethan's skin and clothes.

Charlie may or may not have crawled into bed with him after considering the fact that Ethan's bed was cold whereas his would be warm.

Later that next day, Ethan woke up late and couldn't shower, so he went to the dragons without eating and smelling of nothing but Charlie. Douglass finds out after one whiff and is sent into a rage as Charlie comes into their line of site, all smiles, giddiness, and small, affectionate touches after locating Ethan.

Ethan is unintentionally hurt by Douglass because Douglass thought that Charlie was trying to put the moves on his "chosen mate".

Oops.

Douglass grabs Ethan roughly and carelessly in his mouth, trying pretty much everything to get his Ethan away from that mate stealer Charlie.

Charlie calls after them, and is shocked when red blood falls from Douglass's maw onto the ground. That was Ethan's blood, Charlie was sure of it.

A search party is sent out, consisting of Bearnard, Anne, Not-Anne, Charlie, Romeo, Veronica and a few others. It shouldn't be too hard to find Ethan; after all, he was taken by a massive dragon. Find the dragon, find him. Easy peasy.

But it wasn't.


	8. Everything is Going to be Alright

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So here we are, friends! At the end! It's been a pleasure writing (and maiming) these characters. I hope you all enjoyed this adventure, I know I have... At least until I got lazy and just posted vague summaries with some dialogue, claiming them to be chapters. Please be sure to kudos and comment your favorite bits. Check back regularly for rewritten chapters, possibly more chapters, and maybe even an epilogue where... things... do things... and maybe some action.
> 
> Anyway. Enjoy!

They find Ethan quickly enough (4 days) after Douglass grabs him in his mouth. Ethan has lost a lot of blood, he's very pale, covered in dried blood, and appears to be unresponsive.

Douglass is still incredibly protective and won't let anyone near.

Charlie tries striking a deal with the dragon, but it fails. It's decided that Romeo should try a rescue attempt, and considering how violently Douglass reacted to Charlie, Romeo decides to come to Charlie's aid.

Ethan wakes up slightly, when he hears Romeo's calming, soothing voice, and tells Douglass firmly but softly that he has to leave; he'll die if he doesn't, and then who would he have to play with? Douglass isn't happy with this development, all growls and fire and moping, but agrees after Ethan falls back into pale unconsciousness.

Romeo gets Ethan out of the cave he's been holed up in, and just as Douglass exits, he's forced back in with several well placed spells then held inside with other spells while the elders decide what to do with him; he had, after all, almost killed one of the handlers.

Romeo pulls Ethan to the group, Charlie takes him from Romeo as he's stronger and can lift more dead weight than Romeo. Romeo, drawn away from his Ethan, looks back at Ethan and Charlie, wanting to go and see if his help was needed. 

As soon as Ethan arrives at the infirmary, Charlie is told to go away; he's done all he can.

So Charlie waits. Romeo comes to see how Ethan is doing, his eyes are shiny, hair a dusty mess, and clothes partially singed, possibly from Douglass's flame. Charlie tells him that there's nothing either of them can do, so he's just waiting, but Romeo should probably get the burns on him looked over. Romeo figures he probably should and wanders away, looking dejected.

Another 5 days have passed before anyone is allowed to see Ethan.

He's is still pale and not fully there, but he looks much better; the medical potions are doing him well.

Ethan smiles when he sees Charlie, thanks him, and tries to sit up better, but his entire lower half won't cooperate. The nurse that brought Charlie to Ethan tells him that his legs are paralyzed, for the time being. With some tricky spellwork, he could possibly regain his walking abilities.

"Just help me sit up, please." And the nurse does. Charlie settles in behind Ethan, one leg on each side of him. Ethan allows himself to relax against him, and Charlie wraps his strong arms around Ethan's middle snugly.

They talk for a while, and Charlie asks Ethan what he thinks happened with Douglass and his rampage.

"I think he might have chosen me as a mate. That would explain his behavior towards you; he was always jealous of you, especially when we arrived together, or I smelled like you in the morning. I guess he must've thought you were some kind of competition."

"Is it normal for dragons to act like that?"

"Normally the males fight it out, but since we're so much smaller, he must've thought it'd be easier to just grab me and run. It's okay, though. He didn't know he might kill me. Or paralyze me, I guess."

"What are you going to do about that?" Charlie asked softly.

"I don't know. Maybe go through with the spellwork. The worst that could happen is nothing, I suppose."

Charlie nodded behind him. "I'm so glad I didn't lose you. I was so afraid that when we found you, you'd ether be bones, in his belly, or somehow otherwise dead."

Ethan reached a hand up and cupped Charlie's jaw. "You couldn't get rid of me that easily, Charlie."

Charlie hiccuped and brought his arms up higher, one across his chest, one still around his stomach, and held him tighter. He buried his face into Ethan's neck and let himself cry for the first time in days. Ethan snuggled into him more, trying his best to comfort his friend.

"You're my best friend, Ethan. I'm so glad you're okay."

After a touching, touchy feely moment, Charlie gets up and waves a small, sad eyed goodbye and went to the door. Ethan rolled his eyes and waves bye enthusiastically.

Romeo barged into the room some time after Charlie left. When his eyes locked onto Ethan's, he let out a whine and asked permission before coming in further.

Ethan agrees quickly and holds his arms open. Romeo rushes into them and and kisses Ethan all over, wherever he can reach; Ethan's cheek, his chin, his eyes, his noes, his eyebrows and forhead. Romeo climbs into the bed with him, and smushes himself into Ethan, just wanting to melt their bodies together and never be apart from his sweet and salty Ethan. His head was pressed to Ethan's heart so he could hear that his... friend was still alive, and his body was aligned to Ethan's uncomfortably (Ethan's knee was pushing into Romeo's sensitive bits).

Hours passed, the two of them talking quietly to each other about nothing and everything at once, when talk of their relationship is brought up.

Ethan doesn't know how to react to that, so he tries to change the subject with a red face and eyes looking anywhere but Romeo.

Romeo pulls Ethan's attention from the wall back to him and asks him again what their relation is.

Ethan sighs and whispers, "I don't know, Romeo. I don't think we should even be in a relationship."

"Why not?" Romeo asks, concerned. "What's wrong with us?"

"Nothing! It's just... I feel as though I won't be good enough for you. I think you deserve the world and everything in it, and all I can give you is... barely anything."

Romeo laughed heartily. "Ethan, my dear. You can give me anything I want. I have never asked for much, just your affection. And that's all I'll continue to ask for." Romeo laced their fingers together, and kissed the back of Ethan's hand. "Please be mine, finally and forever?"

"Okay." Ethan whispered, teary eyed.

And the two of them eventually fell into an uncomfortable sleep in the infirmary room, Romeo never leaving Ethan's side, even for a moment.

Tomorrow could wait another day.


End file.
